araabMUSIK

For those of you wondering what the draw is behind seeing some dude play a drum machine live, you've never seen AraabMUZIK annihilate an MPC Sampler in person. The hip hop producer who's shopped beats to Young Jeezy, Ludacris, Cassie and Fabolous (to name a few) is the absolute master when it comes to manipulating an electronic drum set. Search YouTube for his live "A Milli" remix and pull up a seat—“insane” is an understatement.

Otto Kitsinger

Bear Hands

Lo-fi indie rockers Bear Hands have opened for everyone and their mother since the release of their 2007 EP 'Golden' (MGMT, the XX, Vampire Weekend and Le Savy Fav, among them). The Brooklyn quartet has gone on to release two more EPs (2011's 'High Society' and 2012's 'Songs from Utopia, Vol. 1') along with a full-length album, 2010's 'Burning Bush Supper Club.' Bring along your favorite Modest Mouse fan to catch their set—the comparisons are uncanny.

Mike Lawrie

Casey Veggies

The Inglewood rapper has released five mixtapes and been nominated for a coveted spot on XXL’s 2012 Freshman 10 list...all before the kid turned 19. Born Casey Jones, the emcee hit the road with Mac Miller on his Blue Slide Park Tour in 2011 and has performed with the likes of Kendrick Lamar and Odd Future. Check out his Mac Miller-assisted track "Can I Live" for a healthy intro to Veggies' style.

Vallery Jean

Kimbra

You already know the New Zealand singer-songwriter from her cameo on Gotye's inescapable "Somebody That I Used To Know." But her solo album 'Vows' gained her some major traction in her own right—the 2011 release topped the New Zealand albums chart and peaked at No. 14 on the U.S. Billboard 200. If her quirky live performance isn't enough of a reason to check out her live set, how many other times in your life are you going to hear a pop/jazz singer who's been compared to Nina Simone and Bjork (at the same time)?

Amanda Edwards

Lily and the Parlour Tricks

Who says there's no room for 1940's-inspired Americana music anymore? NYC-based sextet Lily & The Parlour Tricks' unique blend of barbershop quartet sounds and 1960s psych-pop lands them somewhere between the range of "What the hell am I'm listening to?" and "Who cares, I want to dance!" The band also has a song about a 19th century murder ("Poison"), so there's something for everyone.

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Sky Ferreira

Sky Ferreira is a 20-year-old singer/songwriter/model who, in her brief, two-year career, has gone through several distinct styles: overproduced wannabe pop star, electropop artist, quasi-grunge diva and, most recently, indie bedroom queen. Her most recent single, "Everything Is Embarrassing," is a fantastic, sultry throwback to an 80s pop-sound that’s at once sad, danceable and almost irritatingly catchy. Basically, she's what Lana Del Rey wishes she were.

Dave M. Benett/amfAR12

Sleepies

Sleepies are a raucous, chaotic, high-energy rock band from Brooklyn. Their sound is tight and fast, the sort of music that sounds best in a small club or warehouse; so long as the venue is dark, not quite clean and amply beer-stocked, anywhere will do. Their live show's great, with lots of hilarious stage banter and, of course, moshing.

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The Postelles

The Postelles are a New York City born-and-raised pop/rock band, combining all the best parts of their influences—The Strokes, Vampire Weekend—into something exciting and new. The Strokes' influence is perhaps most notable, and for good reason; Strokes guitarist Albert Hammond Jr. produced their six-song debut EP.

Chris McKay

Yacht

YACHT is the project of Jona Bechtolt, a musician and multimedia artist, and Claire Evans, a vocalist and performance artist. Together they create a sort of disjointed electropop with strong Talking Heads influences; it's strange, catchy and, best of all, danceable. Their live shows are energetic and excellent, with rad visuals and fan interaction.

C Flanigan

Prince Rama

Brooklyn trio Prince Rama make weirdo, lo-fi psychedelic, mantra-filled music. It's experimental, for sure, but fans of Animal Collective's stranger songs will love it (Animal Collective's Avey Tare and Deakin produced Prince Rama's 2010 album, 'Shadow Temple'.) Their live shows are appropriately trippy, and usually include a stunning visual display.

Gary Wolstenholme

Angel Haze

A 21-year-old, Michigan-born rapper who now calls New York her home (it's also the name of her sick signature song), Angel Haze has a unique flow that's as much influenced by Missy Elliott as it is singer-songwriters. She also has a rather blunt public persona: "The only thing we have in common is genitalia," she said when Fuse asked her about Nicki Minaj comparisons.

Robin Little

Archie Powell & the Exports

A Wisconsin-based rock outfit influenced by Tom Petty and Elvis Costello, Powell & his Exports pair crunchy guitar riffs with great song titles like "Skip Work," "Piggy Bank Blues" and "You Might Be Cruel (Or I Might Be Dumb)." It's party rock that is, in fact, rock music.

Carolina M. Rodriguez

Born Ruffians

Alternating between gently lilting melodies and jumpy, nervous guitar pop along the lines of XTC, Born Ruffians are one of the tragically underrated bands that hail from the Great White North. Not only are their albums classics waiting to be discovered, but they're a helluva good time in concert.

Ollie Millington

Trapper Schoepp & the Shades

A Milwaukee-based outfit that churns out roots rock with youthful exuberance and sharp guitar licks, Trapper Schoepp & his Shades (one of which is his brother) mix Gram Parsons' country with the punchy delivery of a bar band.

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Antigone Rising

A New York-based all-female rock group drawing its inspiration from classic rock outfits like Fleetwood Mac, the Bangles and Queen, Antigone Rising has a nice mix of homegrown harmonies and 1970s songcraft custom made for hangover listening.

Paul Hawthorne

Cities Aviv

23-year-old rapper Gavin Mays started his musical career out as the 18-year-old singer of hardcore band Copwatch, describing his live shows to Pitchfork as "a bunch of our dork-ass friends just punching each other in the face." Since then, dude has mellowed out a bit, rhyming over breezy samples and sounding like your smartest, stoned best friend.

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Electric Guest

How good is L.A. soul/rock duo Electric Guest? Enough to get reclusive producer Danger Mouse to not only produce their entire debut album 'Mondo,' but write a 1,200-word missive on his website explaining why he loved, and wanted to work with, the band. The group have been festival mainstays this past year, drawing from influences as diverse as Blonde Redhead, French cult pop legend Serge Gainsbourg and '90s West Coast rap group Souls Of Mischief.

Douglas Mason

MNDR

Electronic duo MNDR has been a downtown New York fixture since 2009, when electro-pop tracks like "C.L.U.B." and "Caligula" were chronic fixtures in both DJs' sets and the group's live shows. The group's sparkling debut 'Feed Me Diamonds' was released earlier this year, so expect to hear the Patty Hearst-inspired new single "#1 in Heaven" and see frontwoman Amanda Warner dance feverishly around the stage.

Chris McKay

The Presets

The first time we caught this Australian electronic duo, known for their raucous, high-energy live show, was in the basement of a dingy NYC club surrounded by smoke machines and low ceilings. The group has since graduated to much bigger venues, but retains the same manic energy.

Mark Metcalfe

The Stepkids

Last time we caught retro-soul group the Stepkids, they were dressed in all-white uniforms and performing dirty, gritty soul while trippy light projections bathed the performance in a psychedelic glow. Will they keep it minimalist for CMJ or keep the weirdness? We'll be there either way.

Imeh Akpanudosen

Dead Stars

It’s a flannel flashback: Williamsburg, Brooklyn’s Dead Stars, fronted by Jeff Moore (a superb bartender at local watering hole the Levee), play melodic alt-rock and shoegaze straight from the early-‘90s—think Teenage Fanclub, Pavement, Sonic Youth and Dinosaur, Jr. Which means lots of hefty, hummable melodies and even more fuzz tones. Their new single, “Fractured,” is a must-hear. Check it out on Bandcamp.

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Bouts

This Dublin-bred quartet play twin-guitar indie rock full of angular riffs, rumbling drum kicks and the volume cracked up, up, up. They’re like a young, less-polished version of Bloc Party, but with even more alt-rock muscle to flex.

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Cemeteries

New Yorker Kyle Reigle likes all things creepy, like ‘80s horror movies and ghost stories, which he channels into his one-man-band dream-(nightmare?)-pop project Cemeteries. Think ethereal washes, fog-across-the-grave-stone synths and spirit-whisper vocals: “I miss you,” he sings over shimmers of guitar on “Home,” “but you’re just a ghost.” Apparently listeners like creepy, too; Cemeteries killed it on the Bandcamp charts and even opened for breakout indie rockers Youth Lagoon.

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DIIV

Formerly known as Dive, the four-piece led by Brooklyn musician Z. Cole Smith are like the lovechild of the Stone Roses and Mazzy Star hoped up on Adderall—their sound is dreamy, psychedelic and languid, but played at chattering, dancefloor-ready BPM. Their new album, Oshin, has been championed by Pitchfork, Stereogum and Fuse, and is an absolute must-have. So, get it now.

Rick Kern

Dirty Fences

This quartet of young Brookline, Massachusetts natives are keeping the spirit of rock n’ roll alive. This is beer-bottle-breaking, mosh-pit-starting Motor City rawk with a hard backbeat, played by four dudes in matching leather jackets. There are monster choruses about the better things in life, like fornicating with Taylor Swift, so, yes, it’s a safe bet to say that in the corner of some sweaty bar, a tattoo-covered couple are drunkenly making out to the sound of Dirty Fences.

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Napoleon

This Brooklyn-based quartet—boasting three members from Detroit, and another who studied classical and jazz music—released their debut album, 'Success,' this July and it might just earn them that: success. Produced by Kevin McMahon (Titus Andronicus, Swans, Real Estate), 'Success' boasts chiming guitars and a fun, upbeat indie rock feel that sounds lifted from early-‘00s Brooklyn bands like French Kicks and the Walkmen.

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Emma Louise

Like Ellie Goulding? Well, meet her Aussie counterpart. Louise is billed to be the next breakout singer-songwriter with a penchant for folk-pop via acoustic guitars and bubbly electronic synths. She’s already won ‘Breakthrough Independent Artist’ at the 2011 Independent Music Awards, and had her eerie debut single ‘Jungle’ featured on 'Grey's Anatomy.' She just released her gently groovy new single, “Boy,” in the U.S.; see her up close now while you still can.

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Psychic Twins

It’s psychedelic and sweet electro-pop music for star-eyed laptop lovers—yep, put that IM tryst to a bubbly keyboard melody, and you get Psychic Twin. On “I Want to Forget,” singer-keyboardist Erin Fein coos, “Hey, come with me / Isn’t that where you want to be” over producer and bandmate Brett Sanderson’s cascading effects and lo-fi 808 beats. It’s like Beach House’s atmospherics met Postal Service’s twee digi-pop on MySpace and the rest is history.

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The Intelligence

It’s ‘60s-style garage rock from Seattle man-about-town Lars Finberg, of A-Frames notoriety, whose new album, Everybody’s Got It Easy But Me, is a standout in an otherwise very overcrowded genre of late. Check out "(They Found Me in the Back of) the Galaxy"—so simple, so catchy, so fun.

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TOPS

If the xx weren’t so damn heartbroken and depressed, their music might sound a bit like TOPS, a Montreal quartet whose snappy, synth-heavy indie-pop sound is tailor-made for steamy loft party love affairs. Tender Opposites, their new self-produced album out now on Artubus Records, is a solid effort that could signal a breakout career ahead. Oh, and one of their biggest fans: Fellow Montreal native Grimes. Expect them to follow in her tracks to indie stardom.